Written by R. McKay Stangler

R.M. Stangler works in the administration at Donnelly College in Kansas City. He earned a Ph.D. in rhetoric from the University of Kansas. He has taught at the University of Kansas, Donnelly College, and Berry College. His research and writing focuses on Richard Weaver and the Southern Agrarian writers. He is at work on a book about Weaver, agrarianism, and American life.

Anyone who has set foot and paid some small amount of attention in a college classroom knows one thing: the true moments of learning are often indefinable, uncategorizable, and unexplainable. No teacher can predict what will make the light bulb go off for a particular student; no student can understand why one sentence or thought will stick with him for…